Coach Station Research Articles

Impact of thermal stratification on airborne transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 in various indoor environments

There exist various vertical temperature gradients in different-type buildings. A holistic understanding of the impact of different temperature-stratified indoor environments on infection risk is necessary. In this work, the airborne transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 in different thermally stratified indoor environments is assessed using our previously developed airborne infection risk model. Results show that the vertical temperature gradients in office building, hospital, classroom, etc. are within the range of −0.34 to 3.26 °C/m. In large space such as coach station, airport terminal, and sport hall, the average temperature gradient ranges within 0.13–2.38 °C/m in occupied zone (0–3 m); in ice rink with special requirements of indoor environment, the temperature gradient is higher than those in the above indoor spaces. The existence of temperature gradients causes multi-peaks of the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 with distancing, and our results show that in office, hospital ward and classroom, the second peak of the transmission risk is higher than 10−3 in most contact scenarios, while most being lower than 10−6 in large spaces like coach station and airport. The work is expected to provide some guidance on specific intervention policies in relation to the types of indoor environments.

Research on Indoor Thermal Environment Testing of Coach Station Buildings in Xi'an Area

Research on Indoor Thermal Environment Testing of Coach Station Buildings in Xi'an Area

The impact of "freedom day" on COVID-19 health protective behaviour in England: An observational study of hand hygiene, face covering use and physical distancing in public spaces pre and post the relaxing of restrictions.

To study the prevalence of COVID-19 health protective behaviours before and after rules eased in England on the 19th July 2021. Observational study pre (12th-18th July) and post (26th July-1st August) 19th July, and a cross-sectional online survey (26th to 27th July). Observations occurred in supermarkets (n = 10), train stations (n = 10), bus stops (n = 10), a coach station (n = 1) and a London Underground station (n = 1). The survey recruited a nationally representative sample. All adults entering the observed locations during a one-hour period (n = 3819 pre- and n = 2948 post-19th July). In the online survey, 1472 respondents reported having been shopping for groceries/visited a pharmacy and 566 reported having used public transport or having been in a taxi/minicab in the last week. We observed whether people wore a face covering, maintained distance from others and cleaned their hands. We investigated self-reports of wearing a face covering while in shops or using public transport. In most locations observed, the proportion of people wearing face coverings, cleaning the hands and maintaining physical distance declined post 19th July. Pre 19th July, 70.2% (95% CI 68.7 to 71.7%) of people were observed to be wearing a face covering versus 55.8% (54.2 to 57.9%) post 19th July. Equivalent rates for physical distancing were 40.9% (39.0 to 42.8%) versus 29.5% (27.4 to 31.7%), and for hand hygiene were 4.4% (3.8 to 5.1%) versus 3.9% (3.2 to 4.6%). Self-reports of "always" wearing face coverings were broadly similar to observed rates. Adherence to protective behaviours was sub-optimal and declined during the relaxation of restrictions, despite appeals to exercise caution. Self-reports of "always" wearing a face covering in specific locations appear valid.

Residents’ Location-Based Fear of Theft and Their Impact Factors in Guangzhou, China

While the fear of theft is common and is known to lead to lower satisfaction with life and subjective well-being, current literature regards the fear of theft as a stable psychological state and ignores discrepancies based on location and their influencing factors. To fill these gaps, we selected 74 typical communities and collected 1568 questionnaires throughout Guangzhou. The results show that: (1) the respondents demonstrated significant location-based differences in their fear of theft. Locations including a coach station, a railway station, a bus station, a subway station and a wholesale market had the highest associated levels of fear, whereas locations dedicated to leisure activities, especially those in high-end places, had a lower level of respondents' fear of theft. (2) Vulnerability model, victimization model, community security and built environment can be applied to the analysis of fear of theft around different places, but interpretations of fear do vary widely from place to place.

Black carbon and size-segregated elemental carbon, organic carbon compositions in a megacity: a case study for Istanbul

In this study, black carbon (BC), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) were monitored between May 2019 and February 2020. During this sampling period, size-segregated particle samples were collected by a high-volume cascade impactor, once a week. Elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) were investigated on the size-segregated particles. The study was carried out at Esenler district of Istanbul. Main sources in the vicinity of the sampling area are Central Coach Station of Istanbul, residential buildings, small-scale industrial facilities, and O-1 and O-2 highway connection. The average BC concentration was 2763 ± 1974 ng/m3. PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were 38.2 ± 17.4 and 21.5 ± 12.4 μg/m3, respectively. BC comprised 12.8% and 7.2% of PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. Diurnal variation of BC had a similar trend with NO2 concentrations, which showed peak concentrations during rush hours. BC had high Pearson correlation coefficients with NO, NO2, and PM2.5. The geographical position of possible emission sources was estimated through conditional probability function. The Central Coach Station of Istanbul had the highest geographical possibility for BC sources. EC and OC exhibited bimodal size distribution. The coarse mode peak was at 0.95–1.5-μm size bin for OC, whilst it was at 1.5–3-μm size bin for EC. Since EC and BC exhibit the same origin with different measurement principles, we concluded that resuspension of road dust also contributed ambient BC concentrations.

Shopping Centre vs. Railway Station. Selected Examples in Poland

A modern shopping centre is often built as a multi-functional facility. It constitutes a place that generates the customer traffic, and consequently a demand for a relatively big number of parking spaces. A characteristic group of shopping centres are facilities erected in the vicinity of transport hubs, combining different means of transport. This study focuses on the shopping centres located near the railway stations. The railway station and the shopping centre are examples of buildings which fulfil different functions, and yet Poland has seen more and more projects combining these two types of facilities. This paper attempts to determine the influence of the shopping centre integrated with the railway station onto the functions and significance of the railway station building. It also touches upon the aspect of accessibility of the individual structures, particularly to pedestrians. Two shopping centres are considered herein within the scheme of the comparative analysis: “Galeria Krakowska” in Cracow and “Avenida” in Poznan. Both facilities came into being as parts of the construction of the new transport centres located near the main passenger railway stations in both cities. These areas are located in inner cities or nearby, which makes them the potential representational venues. In the result of the study, a tendency to the design shopping centres directly combined with a railway station, e.g. via passages with service outlets, has been observed. It seems that the railway station ceases to be a fully independent structure. In Cracow, it is located underneath the railway platforms, constituting a connector between the shopping centre and the coach station. In Poznan, the railway station is located above some of the railway stations and is linked with the “Avenida” shopping centre via a shopping passage. It has been observed that in both cases it is difficult to separate, both spatially and visually, the new railway station building from the building of the shopping centre, which seems to make the shopping centre take over the function of the edifice of the railway station, welcoming and bidding farewell to passengers. The building of the shopping centre in a way becomes the railway station building. The function of the transport hub, combining different means of transport, does not always entail comfortable pedestrian accessibility. For example in Poznan, some of the railway platforms are not accessible directly from the buildings of the railway station or the shopping centre. Furthermore, this paper points to the impact of such investments on the intended use of former railway station buildings. It has been observed that the adaptation of all the railway station buildings to the new functions in the examples referred to above took place several years after they had been closed down. The Author emphasises the need to determine the future use of old and often historic railway station buildings already at the stage of the investment planning.

Organizing Solikamsk Coach Station and Coachman Service in Great Perm in 1607

Introduction. The city of Solikamsk on the territory of Great Perm was located on the first land road from Moscow to Siberia. This road was built in the late 16th century. The research is devoted to the problem of establishing a permanent coachman service in Solikamsk in 1607. Methods and materials. This issue has not been studied yet. The article is based on documents from Fund no. 21 “Solikamsk Acts” (Archive of St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences): monarch’s decrees, letters from Permian clerks, petitions. We have reconstructed the Solikamsk archive using the method of mutual compliance of documents and their source study analysis. Analysis. In the course of the study we were able to restore the chronology of events, find out the coachman service form of organization, material support, service operation conditions, staff of the Vyatka coach station by name. The paper reveals the mechanisms of managing Great Perm territory, the ways of solving problems of management and transportation. Results. The article reveals the duality of the situation in Great Perm in the early 17th century. On the one hand, we can see functioning of a strictly centralized management system, on the other hand, we observe a strong local government in provinces. Perm’s clerk Prince S.Yu. Vyazemsky had to clearly execute the orders of Moscow and was prevented from making his own decisions. At the same time, key financial issues influencing stable work of coachman service were not originally planned in Moscow. Decisions arrived late. The central government was more concerned with the timely dispatch of tax collections to Moscow. After Solikamsk coach station coachmen dissolution, the problem of transportation on the Siberian road remained.

An Automatic Extraction Method of Coach Operation Information from Historical Trajectory Data

Quality of travel service for road transport relies heavily on richness of transport operation data. Currently, most types of data including coach operation data are collected by manual investigation which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and this significantly hinders the realization of intelligent traffic information service. In view of the above problems, this paper is aimed at introducing a method of automatically extracting coach operation information using historical GPS trajectory data of massive coaches. The method first analyzes trajectory characteristics of coaches within stations and identifies the highly dense point clusters as coach stations using the DBSCAN clustering algorithm. Then the schedule information is obtained by conducting error adjustment on the actual arrival and departure time series of multiple shifts, and the name of coach station is queried from point of interest (POI) and geographical name database provided by online map. Finally, the regular driving route of coaches is extracted by an incremental trajectory merging method. The proposed method is applied in handling historical trajectory data in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China, and experimental results show that the extraction accuracy is 84% and verify its effectiveness and feasibility. The proposed method makes use of data mining techniques to extract coach operation information from big trajectory data and saves a lot of labor work, time, and economic cost required by on-site investigation.

Design of a Warning System for Pedestrians and Non-Motorized Vehicles

This article aims at to invent a warning system which can be used to improve the widely spread phenomenon of pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles’ traffic violation in our country. We collected data by making researches at the cross between the North and South terminal coach station of Jinan. Analysis of psychological knowledge causes pedestrian and non-motorized vehicle traffic violation are expounded in detail.

Discussion on Modern Coach Station Design

China's transportation is developing rapidly, the design of the modern coach station has changed a lot compared with the traditional coach station. In response to these changes, architecture and structural design was discussed in this paper in order to guide the modern coach station design. In the field of architecture design, large space is often used; the traffic flow develops to three-dimensional mode on the base of planar model; commercial facilities are getting more attention, and architecture modeling design is novel; at the same time, structural design also changes accordingly

Vasoactive alteration and inflammation induced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace metals of vehicle exhaust particles

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) increases the incidence of cardiovascular disease, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To characterise ambient PM collected from a coach station in an urban area, particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trace metals were evaluated, and diagnostic ratios were then used to determine the sources based on the PAHs identified in PM. To elucidate the mechanism of PM-induced vascular toxicology, human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) were exposed to PM, PM-free supernatant and residual PM, and the associations between PAHs and trace metals, nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were investigated. Petrogenic-related particulate emissions, such as vehicle exhaust, accounted for 68.75% and 75.00% of mass in the 0.1–1-μm PM (PM0.1–1) and <0.1-μm PM (PM0.1) size fractions, respectively. Vehicle exhaust particles (VEPs) caused significant NO suppression and increase in ET-1 and IL-6, whereas residual PM caused an increase in NO, ET-1 and IL-6 compared with the effects of the corresponding supernatants. PAHs in PM, particularly those with 4–6 rings, were associated with NO suppression, and ET-1 and IL-6 were positively correlated with the amount of trace metal compounds. These findings suggest that chemical components affect the regulation of vasoactive function and inflammation.

Yuk-Ming Dennis Lo

Yuk-Ming Dennis Lo arrived in Cambridge, England, in October 1983, on the brink of one of the coldest winters in British history. Traveling with more luggage than he could carry, the 20-year-old took a taxi from the coach station to nearby Emmanuel College, which would be his home during his three undergraduate years at Cambridge University. Within weeks, the spires and towers of the ancient university town were covered in snow. Walking through the bitter, blustery streets to class was a trial for Lo, who was born and raised in sultry Hong Kong. Inside the lecture halls, he faced another challenge. He had been learning English since he was four, but his professors and classmates spoke so fast and with such a dizzying array of accents that they created their own kind of blizzard. Then there were the tutorials, which happened three to five times a week, each lasting 60 minutes. “That's one hour when you have to face a very clever professor,” said Lo, professor of chemical pathology, Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine, and director of the Li Ka Shing Institute at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. One day, early on, his professor asked Lo a question. Lo gave a technical answer, drawn from his textbook. His professor shot back: how do you know that? “At the time, I felt that was a strange question, so I told him, ‘The book said that,'” said Lo. “What he meant was, ‘How do you know the book is correct? What is the experimental evidence?'” That tutorial marked a turning point for Lo. He would take his professor's lesson—doubt dogma, revere data—to heart, nurture it, and develop it into a credo and a passion. In 1987, as a 24-year-old medical student, he had the idea that fetal cells might be …

Rewitalizacja przemysłowych miast angielskich na przykładzie Barnsley

Polish cities need to redevelop post-industrial areas located within their boundaries. Cities’ authorities, while preparing regeneration programs, can use best practices of Western European cities. One very good example is the case of the English town Barnsley. Barnsley in earlier days was famous for coal mining, but the last pit was closed in 1994. With the demise of the coal industry, people suffered from unemployment and the town from losing its main revenue sources (in 2000, the town was ranked 16th out of 354 most deprived district of England). Town was blighted by a very high incidence of post-industrial areas: disused colliery spoil tips, pit yards and the railway infrastructure which served the collieries. For many years Barnsley has carried out an extensive land reclamation program, together with investments put into new road links and job creation schemes for the former colliery workers. Between 1982 and 2003, over 23 million GBP was spent on the restoration of over 600 hectares of derelict land. Barnsley’s vision is to be a 21st Century Market Town. Those plans are prepared for the next 30 years, and the budget of 380 million GBP (including EU co-financing) constitutes the basis for the town transformation. In 2002, the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, together with local partners, started the Rethinking Barnsley weekend, a consultation project, which was the entry for preparing the urban centre regeneration program, called Remaking Barnsley. Planned and partly realised projects include construction of the new Barnsley Interchange – bus and coach station opened in May 2007, new cultural centre in the old Civic Hall, new commercial centre in Barnsley Markets, Digital Media Centre – opened in August 2007 – an incubator of new technologies, as well as new office and residential areas in the town centre. New business parks opened the new possibilities on the labour market. A well planned and perfectly realised process of the town development, started by wide citizens’ consultancy program, treated as a basis for establishing the town development vision, transformed then into an action plan and verified by already completed projects, is a good example to be copied by Polish towns.

Soiling of limestone in an urban environment characterized by heavy vehicular exhaust emissions

The inorganic and organic chemical composition of weathering sulphate patinas on the limestone walls of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK, have been analysed by FT-IR spectroscopy, pyrolysis gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. The College location is characterized by heavy vehicular exhaust emissions including those from diesel powered public transport vehicles due to its proximity to the main Cambridge coach station. A complex mixture of gaseous and particulate air pollutants are found deposited in the weathering patinas including organic compounds (such as PAHs), which represent markers for present-day vehicular pollution. Slight differences in composition between patinas collected at different heights on the building facades with, in particular, more evidence for a biogenic overprint in samples collected at roof level as opposed to ground (street) level are found. Analytical results confirm how building stones in urban areas acted in the past and still do today as passive repositories for any kind of gaseous and particulate air pollutant present in the surrounding atmosphere; accordingly, weathering patinas are slowly changing their composition to accommodate new classes of present-day air pollutants.